BOSTON —
Charles Lieber, the former chair of the Chemistry Department at Harvard University, was convicted by a federal jury Tuesday in connection with hiding his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program.
The jury deliberated for about two hours and 45 minutes before announcing the verdict after five days of testimony in Boston federal court.
Lieber, 62, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of filing false tax returns, two counts of making false statements and two counts of failing to file reports for a foreign bank account in China.
“There is now no question that Charles Lieber lied to federal investigators and to Harvard in an attempt to hide his participation in the Chinese Thousand Talents Program,” Acting U.S. Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell said in a statement. “He lied to the IRS about the money he was paid, and he concealed his Chinese bank account from the United States. The jury followed the evidence and the law to a just verdict.”
Lieber was first arrested on Jan. 28, 2020, and charged with making false statements to federal authorities.
He is among the highest-profile cases to come from the U.S. Department of Justice’s so-called “China Initiative,” which was launched in 2018 under former President Donald Trump but has faced criticism for its impact on academic research and concerns that it amounts to racial profiling of Chinese researchers.
According to a criminal complaint, Lieber did not disclose that he was being paid a salary of up to $50,000 per month and...
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